New Orleans is 2nd worst for income inequality in the U.S., roughly on par with Zambia, report says

A man stand in-between two tents under the Pontchartrain Expressway overpass in New Orleans Tuesday, August 12, 2014. The New Orleans Health Department handed out fliers Monday (Aug. 11) warning people who have been living under the expressway overpass that they have 72 hours to leave.(Photo by Brett Duke, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune)

Bloomberg plotted America's 50 most unequal cities according to their Gini coefficient, which measures the concentration of income, rather than overall income (gross domestic product) or the wealth of the average citizen (median income). In a country with a Gini coefficient of 0, all residents enjoy the same level of income. In a country with a Gini coefficient of 1, a single person holds all the country's wealth.

New Orleans' Gini index was .5744.

Only Atlanta -- .5882 -- had a higher coefficient than New Orleans, according to Bloomberg. Atlanta's median household income was $46,466, more than $12,000 higher than that of New Orleans. Even as Atlanta had more inequality than New Orleans, the average resident in Atlanta was much better off than the average New Orleanian.

In New Orleans, the bottom 40 percent of the population earns just 7.5 percent of the income, according to Bloomberg.

Inequality is growing nationally, but the speed of growth in New Orleans is faster than that in many other cities. New Orleans' Gini coefficient rose 5.39 percent since 2008. Only 14 of the 50 cities included on Bloomberg's sortable list saw inequality grow faster.

The Gini coefficient for the United States as a whole was .4757, according to Bloomberg, which updated its figures in April. According to the CIA, which hasn't updated its figure for the United States since 2007, when its Gini Coefficient was .45, America ranked 41st for income inequality, between Uruguay and the Philippines.